This is why Bellator has a leg up on their talent development.... Build up your home grown stars, not knock them off. The UFC puts all their eggs into the hottest basket (at the cost of all their other talent), it truly baffles me how after time and time again, they've yet to figure that out (even after outcry from the fans)
I have been saying this for years. Case in point is Yair vs Zabit. 2 of the best strikers, not just at 145, but in all of MMA. Both are young guys that should be very marketable and fan friendly, given their Anthony Pettis esque striking talents. You would love for them both to fight in a title fight at some time, or even in a no.1 contender type fight. But these motherfucking stupid imbeciles already are matching them up, forcing them to have to knock 1 of the other down for at least a while.
Especially asinine considering Yair is already coming off a loss, and this fight he has a very good chance to have 2 losses in a row.
Then take Edson Barboza vs Anthony Pettis, they had so much time and chances to match them up when both where streaking, yet they only put them against each when each was on losing streaks, Pettis was on a 3 fight skid, Edson a 2 fight skid, forcing one of them to have to endure an even longer losing streak. 2 incredible strikers, the kind of guys you would prefer to not go on losing streaks so you can showcase them on PPV's and main event on free cards etc...
WME is just stupid, and Zuffa also was doing this stupid shit also, but not as often as WME.
They also did this during this when Misha Cirkunov fought Nikita Kyrlov, 2 fresh faces in a division that needs depth, they should be fighting the estalibshed guy for a while and making their mark so you build their name, so if they figh tin the future it has marquee flash. Yet they force them to fight when they are barely known.
Bellator in this regard is so much smarter, but they sometimes overdo it, like with Michael Page where it's been almost 2 years that everyone is saying his comp needs to be elevated, but they seem to be doing it right with Aaron Pico outside the first fight mistake.